Last week, I left you with a question to think about as we embark on our collective skincare journey. (Link to Previous Article)
I wanted to start our journey by giving you all an idea of how skincare became so important to me. I will be sharing my approach on skincare each week to expand on the mystical topic of skincare!
The Backstory
Growing up in New York, I always felt inherently American. Despite having a French mom, I primarily identified with the place where I was born.
Side story: My mom has told me she will never forget this one time she gave me French cheese. Naturally, she didn’t think anything if it… until I said it tasted bad. She asked me, “how can you not like French cheese?? You’re French!” And I said, “mom, I’m American!.”
Anyway, I eventually started understand that I was not just American and that there was so much to gain from my cultures of origin (my mom is half-French and half-Vietnamese; my dad is African-American, Native-American, and Welsh). Notice that I seem to be born with genetic anti-aging! I am often told that I am lucky to have a mix of: “black don’t crack” and “Asians don’t die”. Though I love my genetic wiring to age well, it doesn’t mean I didn’t go through dealing with young skin.
Young, pubescence is where my skin began its journey. I always had soft, baby skin that needed no extra attention. Then, BOOM, I had little bumps on my face that would come and go as they pleased. At least, that’s how dramatically I perceived the change. My mom taught me how to have good skin hygiene and that consistency was very important. I remember she introduced me to a set of Mario Badescu products which became my first skincare routine ever. At some point, I didn’t know why the pimples wouldn’t just go and so I adopted a make up routine (then, of course, my mom told me to never forget to remove my make up and how important that was for my skin). While my first skincare knowledge was from my mom, I was a teenager that also talked about this stuff with friends. So, my independent skincare journey began.
The Epiphany
I’ve come to realize that women have been socially “trained” to use make up to cover up what we don’t eliminate through skincare, as if it was ever realistic to attain blemish-free skin. I feel like men, on the other hand, have been almost forgotten in skincare or trained to think it’s too feminine (men, I want to hear your thoughts!). Last week, I actually saw an advertisement for a famous French brand and the tag line translated to something like: in order to attain flawless makeup, you have to attain flawless skin. I thought this was a good concept to have in mind because, though it does not have to be perfect, skin is our canvas and needs to be taken care of…
I wanted to introduce you to the journey by giving you an idea of where my journey started. Be patient with me as we glide into a path together. Each post will be an additional piece and will soon start to fall together! There is no chronology to my thought process, but more of a flow. So, I will be posting here on Sundays and some Wednesdays. But, I am still working on the schedule, so I will keep you updated (Instagram is the fastest way to get an update).
Love, MADI
P.S. Check out my latest posts on Instagram and Twitter! I’m always updating and sharing there, to fill you in between posts and to candidly share more of me.
Instagram: madisoncpugh
Twitter: madisoncpugh
